The present invention relates to an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, an emergency communication apparatus and an emergency report system, or in particular to an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, an emergency communication apparatus and an emergency report system for reporting an emergency at the time of occurrence of an accident such as a collision of vehicles including automobiles.
In the prior art, various apparatuses are provided for securing the running safety of vehicles. No matter how the running safety is improved by the various apparatuses, however, it is difficult to reduce accidents to zero. In the case of an emergency including an accident, therefore, an emergency report system for reporting the emergency to a predetermined organ is effective.
An example of an emergency report system is disclosed in JP-A-10-162284. The emergency report system disclosed in this publication comprises a vehicle station for detecting the position of a vehicle involved and transmitting information on the position of the vehicle, and a Mayday center (emergency report service station) for performing and monitoring a bidirectional communication with the vehicle station, wherein in the case where an emergency report is required for the vehicle station, the Mayday center transmits an emergency report to a plurality of destinations in the order of priority based on the position where the vehicle station is located.
In order to meet a situation where the communication facility is destroyed and becomes inoperative by a vehicle accident, the emergency report system described above detects the degree of danger on the path on which the vehicle involved is running, based the running conditions of the vehicle and the shape of the road on which it is running, and in the case where the degree of danger is higher than a predetermined value, the time from entry to exit from the area of high degree of danger is predicted, reports an emergency situation to the Mayday center in advance, and in the case where the communication is not restored upon lapse of a predetermined time, detects the emergency situation.
A vehicle accident is often caused in the presence of another vehicle such as a collision between vehicles, as well as by the running conditions of the vehicle involved or the shape of the road where it is running. To meet such situations, the emergency report system is required to process a multiplicity of communications by reporting a situation to the emergency report service station (Mayday center) and canceling it upon lapse of a predetermined time in the case where the input information is not sufficient for detecting the degree of danger or the degree of danger is low.
For this reason, in many cases, the conventional emergency report system is required to have a large capacity of the communication line and a large processing capacity of the emergency communication apparatus installed in the emergency report service station to process the advance information canceled.
Also, the emergency report service station communicates with the home of a driver based on the data sent from the emergency report apparatus (vehicle station), and in the case where the emergency situation is an impersonal accident or a malfunction of the vehicle involved, the driver often remains unaffected, and therefore it is sufficient for the driver to report the emergency situation to his/her home.
In the case where the emergency situation is a personal or physical accident resulting in a death or an injury, however, the driver is required to be treated in hospital, and it may be difficult for the driver to wait near the emergency report apparatus (the vehicle involved). Even in the case where the driver could successfully communicate with the his/her home at the place of accident, however, the information on the subsequent destination or the hospital where the driver may be accommodated is often unknown.
The reason why the driver""s home address is described as a place of notification at the time of occurrence of an emergency situation is for the driver to seek the help of a person waiting in his/her home in such a situation. What is most important for a person waiting in the driver""s home is to be informed, as soon as possible, of not only the very fact of occurrence of a particular emergency situation but also whether the driver is safe or not and where the driver is going to be accommodated. The conventional emergency report system, however, fails to meet these requirements sufficiently.
The present invention is intended to obviate these problems and the object thereof is to provide an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, an automotive vehicle having mounted thereon the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, an emergency report testing apparatus for the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, an emergency communication apparatus and an emergency report system, wherein the operation of an accurate, reliable emergency report is secured by increasing the appropriateness of an emergency situation prediction, the required capacity of the communication lines of the emergency report system can be reduced, and the processing load of the emergency communication apparatus installed in an emergency report service station can be decreased, and a person concerned can be informed of the place where the vehicle occupant is to be accommodated and whether the occupant is safe or not after the occurrence of an accident.
In order to achieve this object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus comprising vehicle position detection means for detecting the position of the vehicle involved, emergency situation prediction means for predicting an emergency situation encountered by the vehicle involved and communication means for communicating with an emergency report service station, wherein the emergency situation prediction means predicts whether the vehicle involved encounters an emergency situation a predetermined time later, based on at least one of the feature quantities including the distance from an object to collide with, the relative speed, the relative acceleration, the speed of the vehicle involved, the brake pedal stroke, the steering wheel angle and the facial expression of the driver, and wherein the result of the prediction is transmitted to the emergency report service station by the communication means, together with the vehicle position information detected by the vehicle position detection means.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, wherein the emergency situation prediction means predicts the position of the vehicle involved and the position of an object to collide with a predetermined time later, based on the distance from an object to collide with, and the running speed, the acceleration and the steering wheel angle of the vehicle involved, and estimates the possibility of collision based on the prediction of the relative positions.
In the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus according to the invention configured as described above, the emergency situation prediction means predicts whether the vehicle involved encounters an emergency situation a predetermined time later, based on at least selected one of the feature quantities including the distance from an object to collide with (the distance from another vehicle running ahead, for example), the relative speed, the relative acceleration, the running speed, the brake pedal stroke, the steering wheel angle and the facial expression of the driver of the vehicle involved. Specifically, the position where the vehicle involved is located and the position of an object to collide with a predetermined time later are predicted based on the distance from the object to collide with, the running speed, the acceleration, the steering wheel angle of the vehicle involved, and the possibility of a collision is estimated based on the relative positions of the vehicle involved and the object to collide with. Therefore, the appropriateness of the prediction of an emergency situation is increased thereby making it possible to report an emergency situation both accurately and reliably.
According to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus comprising an internal power supply in addition to and charged by an on-vehicle power supply, wherein the on-vehicle power supply is used normally, and in the case of failure of power from the on-vehicle power supply, power is supplied from the internal power supply, thereby making it possible to maintain the normal operation regardless of a power failure even in the case where the on-vehicle power supply runs out of order due to an accident.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, wherein the result of the self-diagnosis of the vehicle is transmitted to the emergency report service station by the communication means.
According to a fifth aspect of the invention, there is provided an automotive vehicle having the aforementioned on-vehicle emergency report apparatus mounted thereon.
According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency situation testing apparatus comprising communication means for communicating with the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, wherein the result of the self-diagnosis is received from the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus and the acknowledgment of the receipt is transmitted to the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus.
According to a seventh aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency communication apparatus comprising a notifiee data base for storing the information on the notifiee person concerned and communication means, wherein the communication means includes means for receiving an emergency situation report from the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus, means for requesting a first aid to take an emergency action, means for receiving the information on the prospective destination of the occupant of an emergency-reporting vehicle from the first aid, means for searching the notifiee data base for the notifiee information of the person concerned, associated with the occupant, and means for transmitting the information on the prospective destination of the occupant to the notifiee person concerned.
Upon receipt of an emergency situation report from the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus according to this invention configured as described above, a first aid is requested to take an emergency action, the information on the prospective destination of the occupant of the vehicle involved is received from the first aid, the notifiee data base is searched for the information on the notifiee person concerned, associated with the occupant, and the information on the prospective destination of the occupant is transmitted to the notifiee. Thus, the person concerned can quickly acquire the information on a hospital or other prospective destination where the occupant is to be accommodated.
According to an eighth aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency communication apparatus, to which a first aid including an emergency hospital constituting the destination and emergency transport means such as an ambulance transmit the information on the prospective destination of the occupant.
According to a ninth aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency communication apparatus for transmitting the information as to whether the occupant is safe or not, to the notifiee person concerned, in addition to the information on the prospective destination of the occupant.
According to a tenth aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency communication apparatus, which can receive the information on the position of an emergency-reporting vehicle together with an emergency situation report from the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus and transmit the information on the latest position of the emergency-reporting vehicle to the person concerned, through communication means.
According to an 11th aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency communication apparatus, wherein in the case where a transferee is set in the telephone of the notifiee person concerned, the telephone number of the transferee is acquired from selected one of the original telephone and the transferee telephone, and the person concerned can be contacted directly through the transferee telephone.
According to a 12th aspect of the invention, there is provided an emergency report system comprising an on-vehicle emergency report apparatus and an emergency communication apparatus installed in an emergency report service station.
As will be understood from the foregoing description, with the on-vehicle emergency report apparatus and the emergency report system according to this invention, the degree of danger is detected based on a greater amount of input information, and therefore the accuracy of the emergency situation prediction means is increased. Thus, the safety of an occupant after an emergency situation can be positively secured. At the same time, both the required capacity of the communication line of the emergency report system and the processing load of the emergency communication apparatus installed in the emergency report service station can be reduced.
Also, with the emergency communication apparatus according to the invention, the person concerned such as a person waiting in the home of the occupant can be informed quickly whether the occupant is safe or not and where he/she is going to be accommodated.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.